Most bands need a little bit of a grace period to work up to their big-time success. But Foreigner, so named because they were a mix of British and American musicians, came blasting out of the gate with big hits right off the bat on their debut album in 1977. They kept up that chart success for over a decade before the pop hits dried up a bit.
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With nine Top-10 U.S. singles and five more that hit the Top 20, this band now slated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame crossed over with more regularity than most of their arena-rocking peers. But what were their biggest hits? Let’s find out, running them down in reverse order until we get to their biggest chart smash.
5. “Feels Like the First Time” (1977; Peak U.S. Chart Position: No. 4)
The elements were all in place for the band on their first single, released in 1977: the big hooks, crunching guitars, clever modulations from section to section, and, of course, Lou Gramm’s powerful yet soulful vocals. Mick Jones, the founder of Foreigner who was also their chief songwriter, was writing about a new relationship he had begun. But he also later realized that he could have been writing about his new band, which immediately gave him the vibes that he was in for the biggest success of his career.
4. “Hot Blooded” (1978; No. 3)
Foreigner didn’t rely on riffs as much as some of their late-’70s rock brethren. But they certainly did on this stomper, as Mick Jones came up with a doozy. You can find fault with some of the machismo of the lyrics, but that was kind of part and parcel for the times. Lou Gramm helped with the words, and it’s hard to knock the shout-along qualities of the chorus. This was also an important hit for the band, as it was the first single off their second album. By blasting out of the gate with “Hot Blooded,” there was no way to call these guys a one-album fluke.
3. “Double Vision” (1978; No. 2)
Proof positive that songwriters should always be on the lookout for ideas, even in the strangest places. In this case, lead singer Lou Gramm had a hockey game playing on a TV in the background when he heard the announcers say a player had been knocked out of the game after taking a blow to the head was experiencing double vision. Hence, another rocking hit was born, one that just missed taking the band to the top of the charts. They were kept out of that No. 1 spot in the U.S. by Donna Summer’s disco reimagining of “MacArthur Park.”
2. “Waiting for a Girl Like You” (1981; No. 2)
One thing that Foreigner hadn’t really shown much on their first three albums was a propensity for ballads. But for their 1981 album 4, which found them working with producer Mutt Lange, they realized what an impression a song like that could make. Of course, it didn’t hurt that they had a vocalist like Lou Gramm who could sell the heck out of romantic songs like that. And, on “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” they had a secret weapon: Thomas Dolby, who would go onto a big hit with “She Blinded Me with Science,” plays the cascading synthesizer part in the song.
1. “I Want to Know What Love Is” (1984; No. 1)
Sadly, Foreigner’s first and only No. 1 hit caused a major schism between Lou Gramm and Mick Jones. Jones is credited as the lone songwriter on the track, but Gramm claimed to have helped write a chunk of it. Gramm said he didn’t fight for credit when the two disagreed on how much each contributed. In any case, the song from the 1984 album Agent Provocateur accentuated just how massive Gramm’s vocals could be, as he captures all the yearning of the lyrics (whoever wrote them) and sounds right at home in the pop-gospel setting.
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Photo by David Redfern/Redferns
